At Puppy Doe cruelty arraignment, tears, sobs and satisfaction

Dozens of dog owners filled a Quincy courtroom for the arraignment of accused Puppy Doe abuser Radoslaw Cerkawski. Some spectators softly sobbed as Cusick said veterinarians concluded that Puppy Doe was abused two or three weeks before she was found. They wept again as Cusick said investigators matched DNA from Puppy Doe...

Nancy Harris of Weymouth brushed away tears in Quincy District Court Tuesday as she listened to a Norfolk County prosecutor describe the starvation, stab wound and dislocated bones the pit bull known as Puppy Doe endured before she died.

Dozens more dog owners wiped their tears and stifled sobs as they fixed their attention on Radoslaw Czerkawski, Puppy Doe’s alleged abuser, as he stood in the arraignment dock, his face turned away from spectators.

Harris and the others had been hoping for this moment for a month. Quincy police went public with their investigation Sept. 20, three weeks after the year-old female dog was found and euthanized. In the weeks since, Harris and others took part in a vigil for Puppy Doe and barraged police with emails, asking when they would catch the culprit.

“I had to see him,” Harris said before the arraignment. She was wearing a black “In memory of Puppy Doe” T-shirt she first wore at the vigil.

Czerkawski is charged with 11 counts of animal cruelty. Harris and her fellow pet lovers took their grief and anger into the First Session courtroom Tuesday, and Judge Mark Coven warned them in advance to “retain your decorum.”

“No signs. No acting out,” Coven said. “I know this is very emotional.”

As a Polish-language interpreter translated for Czerkawski, Harris and others quietly listened to Norfolk County prosecutor Tracey Cusick outline how police used Craigslist postings to trace Puppy Doe’s ownership to Czerkawski, and how they used cellphone records to connect him to a home on Quincy’s Whitwell Street, where he looked after a 95-year-old Polish woman.

Some spectators softly sobbed as Cusick said veterinarians concluded that Puppy Doe was abused two or three weeks before she was found. They wept again as Cusick said investigators matched DNA from Puppy Doe’s necropsy to DNA from blood stains and fur they found on the walls and bathroom of the Whitwell Street house.

Cusick said Czerkawski bought Puppy Doe via Craigslist from a Worcester owner in June, and that the elderly woman he looked after died Aug. 31 – the same day Puppy Doe was found at a playground a quarter-mile from the Whitwell Street residence.

On Sept. 24, four days after police went public with the case, Czerkawski told investigators that he had seen a couple of teenagers with a dog near the playground a couple of days before Puppy Doe was found. That led to the charge police used to bring Czerkawski from New Britain, Conn.: lying to investigators.

Nancy Harris and other dog owners nodded with approval when Coven set Czerkawski’s cash bail at $500,000, the amount prosecutors asked for.

They burst into applause when Coven told Czerkawski’s court-appointed attorney that he would not impound prosecutors’ bail statement.

Page 2 of 2 - Coven swiftly ended that reaction.

“This isn’t entertainment,” he told the spectators. “I’m not doing this for your benefit. This man is entitled to a fair trial.”

Outside the courthouse after the hearing, several pet owners cheered. Harris didn’t, but she said she was pleased by Czerkawski’s high bail.